Marketing In Radio Today

Being a marketing junkie for over 20 years, I am amazed how commercial radio stations in 2016 are losing their street credibility in their respective markets.

These days drive by any radio station in a market and I bet you will see their station vehicles sitting in parking spaces dirty as hell. The best utilized promotion tool stations have are the moving billboards also known as… YOUR VEHICLE! What happened to the street hits? Chilling at the parks, hitting up the schools, or sitting in traffics jams just so listeners could see your logo everywhere?

The answer is simple… STUPIDITY!

With all the changes in radio like, voice-tracking shows, PD’s over 6 stations in a market, Regional Managers with 20 stations to keep up with, its no wonder that the Marketing & Promotions departments are in array. Oh lets not forget social media.

Stations are making the same mistakes as local event promoters by using what I call the Anti-Social Networks as the main strategy in reaching out to their listeners. Yes you must engage online, but you must engage in person to be able to reinforce your brand.

I always preached to my street team that they are the true ambassadors our stations. Why? Street Team members are primarily the first contact an advertiser, or listener will engage with in regards to any station. If the listener/advertiser has a bad experience the first time they engage with your station, just hope they don’t have a meter.

Over my 20 years in the game, I have done just about everything in radio… Street Team, On-Air, Promotions, Marketing, Programming, Sales, Digital… and at the end of the day, if the promotions department is not active, so goes the station.